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May 28th, 2013 (F1plus/R. Baillie).- The Monaco Grand Prix is the jewel in the crown of the Formula 1 calendar, it’s the one fans and drivers look forward to and love. Yet again Monaco provided us with an exciting race which saw Nico Rosberg lead from lights out to the checkered flag around the streets of Monaco.

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Rosberg Reigns Supreme in Monaco
Many (myself included) thought there would be no chance of Nico Rosberg winning the Monaco Grand Prix, expecting he’d go backwards during the first few laps as he did in Spain.
However the German managed to control the race incredibly well to take his first win since the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix and got out of the car looking as if he’d been for a relaxing Sunday afternoon drive. Even better for Nico, it marked 30 years since his Father Keke Rosberg won in Monaco, making them the first Father and Son to win around the streets of Monaco

Kimi’s Fantastic Final Five Laps
Kimi Raikkonen was having a pretty good race until he and McLaren’s Sergio Perez connected a few laps before the end, resulting in a rear tyre puncture for the Finn.
After pitting for fresh tyres he was outside the top 10 (16th to be precise), meaning it would break his spell of 22 races within the points. Determined not to let that happen he was a man on a mission during the last five laps and managed to finish in the points stealing 10th from Nico Hulkenberg on the last lap.

Great Race for Jean-Eric Vergne
There’s been much speculation that one of the Toro Rosso boys will be graduating to Red Bull next year if Mark Webber decides to leave the team.
Jean-Eric Vergne had a good clean race and managed to make up two positions throughout the race and finished in 8th place picking up two points for the team.

Brilliant Overtaking Moves from Adrian Sutil
Since his return to the sport Adrian Sutil hasn’t performed quite as well as he was hoping, however around the streets of Monaco he was able to show his skill and pulled of a few fantastic overtakes through the loews hairpin.

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Groundhog Day for Felipe Massa
On lap 30 Felipe Massa eerily had a crash at Sainte Devote which looked exactly the same as the incident he had during FP3 on Saturday. The Brazilian was seen being fitted with a neck brace at the side of the track and was taken to the hospital as a precaution, the team later commented that he was feeling ‘alright’.

Lewis Hamilton Loses Out Under the Safety Car
Following Felipe Massa’s crash at Sainte Devote the Safety Car collected the two Red Bulls and then released them again, during this time Lewis Hamilton pitted and failed to get out of the pit lane before both Red Bulls and got stuck behind them for the rest of the race, just missing out on a podium finish.

Max Chilton Gets Off Scot-Free
After recovering from an incident at the chicane Max Chilton moved across in front of Williams driver Pastor Maldonado on the way into Tabac, leaving the Venezuelan with nowhere to go and sending him into the barrier. Perhaps luckily the barrier ended up wrapping itself around Maldonado’s car which came in useful when Jules Bianchi ran into the back of him.
The stewards investigated the incident between Chilton and Maldonado and handed Chilton a drive through penalty, which you could argue had no effect on his race at all and was rather surprising consider Romain Grosjean has received harsher penalties for slightly less.

Rookie Error from RoGro
Romain Grosjean has looked much more mature, calm and collected this year, making us all think that perhaps he’d seen the error of his ways and stopped making silly rookie errors. Unfortunately around the streets of Monaco we saw his rookie errors return as he misjudged his breaking distance coming out of the tunnel and collided with the back of Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso sending it flying ending his race, thankfully Ricciardo was uninjured. Grosjean was forced to retire a couple of laps later due to a broken floor.

Alonso’s Sleepy Sunday Afternoon in Monaco
It’s not very often you see Fernando Alonso getting caught out, however around the streets of Monaco we saw Alonso get caught out a couple of times. You got the impression that perhaps Alonso wasn’t in quite the right frame of mind maybe due to having to give Perez a place back, the race being red flagged or something else entirely, but the two time World Champion didn’t quite seem his usual feisty self.

Bad Luck for Giedo van der Garde
During Qualifying Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde impressed everyone by getting through to Q2 and Qualifying in 15th place. During the opening laps of the race he was forced to pit for a new front wing after making contact with Pastor Maldonado sending him to the back of the pack straight away. He was unable to move back through the traffic and spent most of the race at the back of the grid finishing in last place.

A Weekend Jules Bianchi Would Rather Forget
Poor Jules Bianchi had more than his fair share of luck in Monaco following an air box fire during Qualifying which meant he failed to set a time during the session.
His bad luck was far from over and as the drivers began their warm up lap his Marussia was stuck on the grid and had to be pushed out of the way.
Once the lights were out in Monaco he was involved in three different incidents; the first saw him and Maldonado come together through the chicane, the second saw him run into Maldonado’s car after his team mate Max Chilton forced him off the track and the last one saw him crash at Sainte Devote and ended his race.

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